‘Born Thug’ cuts prison time in stabbing retrial

A twice-convicted felon with the words “Born Thug” tattooed on his stomach was convicted Tuesday in the retrial of a 2009 stabbing at Albany’s LarkFest.

Anthony Harden, however, may have shaved more than 50 years off his original sentence, which was tossed when a he won a new trial. Harden was convicted Tuesday of stabbing Christopher Puerta and Richard Thomas, but acquitted of stabbing a third man. Harden also was cleared of the most serious charges against him.

My colleague Robert Gavin reports:

But jurors acquitted Harden of any wrongdoing in his admitted stabbing of Christopher Puerta’s brother, Jonathan, whom he previously was convicted of assaulting.

And they acquitted Harden of the most serious charges he faced — three counts of first-degree assault, each of which carried up to 25 years in prison.

Harden, of Troy, was convicted of those charges at his first trial in 2010. Now-state Supreme Court Justice Thomas Breslin sentenced him to 65 years in prison and, citing the defendant’s tattoo, told him, “It appears you lived up to the billing.” Breslin also told Harden it was “not too shy of a murder case here.”